Many people get disillusioned in the quest for justice within legal systems
Laws, apparently, emerge as the carriers of justice, validating their recognition, acceptance, and implementation. They are revered as instruments to fetch justice for the victims. Law stands as hope for the people who have been victimized. But does the law serve its purpose? This is a question debated in the spheres of jurisdiction. Does it deliver justice to those who approach it? These questions pester everyone who confronts these laws through various institutions, especially police stations and courts. One’s illusions are eliminated post-confrontation with these laws and their institutions. One returns despaired and disappointed, re-introspecting one’s beliefs about these laws and their credibility in daily life. What we don’t know until experience disillusions us propels us into great surprise.
Laws and justice collide, and the former kills the latter by leading to its implementation and prioritization due to its stern dealings. It is kept subservient to the latter, and a stage is never reached after roaming courts for decades where both meet each other and justice is delivered to the victim. The processes and appearances are so long and hectic that justice is throttled at every turn. Things can only be resolved if justice precedes laws and is prioritized by the institutions that implement laws. Judgments should succeed in profound investigations and inquiries.
So many things transpire behind witnesses, evidence, on-the-spot events, and apparent injuries and wounds that strengthen the cases of justice. These aspects are not considered, and the victimizer wins over the victimized. This has become common. The victim fails to produce solid proof of his innocence, and his verbal discourses of justice are abrogated. Justice is not only delayed but denied forever.
These man-made laws stand against the divine laws of justice. They turn things topsy-turvy and prolong the suffering of innocent people who do not know the proceedings of these artificial laws and approach these institutions with optimism, only to return empty-handed. The victory and defeat of cases have been reduced to the strength of arguments and concocted evidence. This goes on endlessly, leading to the abrogation of the sanctity of these institutions.
Robert Frost says, “A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.” This has become the state of our courts. A lawyer is good only if he succeeds in protecting his client. My recent visit to court, along with my friend who is an advocate in the High Court of Srinagar, disillusioned me a lot. While interacting with his different clients whose cases he argues in court, I was surprised to learn about various people whose cases are trivial but have been dragged through the court for decades without pause; yet, nothing happened—no justice was delivered, no reconciliation transpired.
We all believe that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. If man-made institutions fail to deliver justice, their sanctity perishes, and they can no longer be revered. They are respected only due to their deliverance of justice, but if they fail to deliver it to the people, their sacredness will be questioned. People will no longer approach them with hope.
Laws have pierced our conscience very deeply. We rely more on laws than on our conscience. Mahatma Gandhi says, “There is a higher court than the courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.” We forget that we have made the laws; laws have not made us. Laws are for us; we are not for laws. Laws are for our safety, not for our peril. Laws should facilitate our lives, not complicate them. Laws should bring us peace, not chaos. I saw wives suing husbands, obstinately seeking to punish them. I saw sisters suing brothers to disgust them. I saw children suing their parents to spoil their lives. Our courts reflect the gruesome reality of our society. We have fallen so low. We have messed everything up. Man has interfered with divine laws and spoiled everything. One can only mourn, “What man has made of man.”
By Fida Hussain Bhat
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